Re: [Leica] Hexar RF...Good News...Bad News

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

 The discussion on how to "save" Leica seems to offer enough choices for the 
management and if we all put in our two "Pfennigs" worth we can probably buy 
the company - the Ultimate Collectible!
 Everybody else has had a go at it, so here is my try.
 Leica's product line is fine, with the exception of the R-system. The 
M-camera is probably as evolved as it can be without going "hi-tech". The 
biggest problem facing Leica now is how to increase sales. For the last 20-25 
years the marketing has been targeting the existing M-owners. This is a 
rather reactionary group, we don't want to many innovations, status quo is 
fine and although we splurge and buy the latest APO/Asph etc lenses, we are 
still hoarding our old 35's and 50's and only buy the new stuff to prove to 
ourselves that the old stuff is still the best! The problem is that we are a 
diminishing group, death and taxes take their toll. We also wake up 
occasionally and say to ourselves "enough is enough - lets shoot with what we 
have, rather than go broke on the latest piece of glass"!
 Leica and Mr. Cohn must expand the base of customers. Rather than trying to 
sell a slightly changed product to those of us who already have a perfectly 
usable version of the same product, they have to expand the market. If you 
ask the younger crowd of photographers, they are almost surprised that the 
Leica is still being made! At ICP in NYC among 25 students, 2 owned Leica's 
and the picture is similar at most every "Photographic" educational facility. 
All right, the price of a Leica M puts it out of reach to most students, but 
there seems to be no "lusting" after the M either. For those of us that have 
reached middle age and beyond, remember the thrill of getting a new lens or a 
new body. You did save, ate a lot of cheap food and abstained from expensive 
habits for months at end to scrape the money together and then one day you 
stood there with your green/white box and a pristine M2 or M3 in it. You 
unwrapped it, attached a strap and the lens (35/2 of course) and loaded it 
up. The old used one that it replaced was thanked for its hard service and 
allowed a period of rest and out you went with your new tool. There is 
something missing today, you phone or e-mail a dealer in another time-zone, 
give him/her your credit card number and 24-48 hours later FedEx delivers. 
Somehow not the same thing. Leica almost did achieve this period of 
anticipation with the 90/2 APO-Asph and the R-8 Motor, but most of us could 
scrape the money together in the 2 years it took to bring these products to 
the market and now the delay become an aggravation instead. Now, how do we 
install the same quality of  "worth the wait" in the younger, larger market 
for M-products? The optical performance is one thing, the durability is 
another and the historical background can and should be capitalised upon. The 
new M-brochure does this well, but there is something missing here. The same 
cache that sells Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Mont-Blanc and to some extent Porsche 
should be applied to Leica. Make it something that you reward yourself with 
and also make it something that defines you as a person who knows good value 
and good design. There are enough well paid professionals in a variety of 
fields that at 25 years of age and over that can afford "the best" and all we 
have to do is tell them as far as cameras go, the M is it! 
 The discussion of "new products" and "more whiz-bang diodes" is a moot one. 
Rolex/L-V/ Mont-Blanc and Porsche/Morgan survive because they are constants. 
The product is refined as it is being made, but for all practical purposes it 
remains the same as it was decades ago. The M-camera is and should remain the 
antidote to the gadget-laden offerings from other manufacturers. All that 
remains for Leica and those of us who use the products is to convince the 
younger ones around us to go forth and spend on it. It is not an entirely 
selfless suggestion either. Some of these new buyers will tire of the camera, 
as they do of their Rolexes, L-V luggage, Mont-Blanc pens and Porsches and 
sell them, at a discount to us, but some will take to the camera, become 
fascinated with the mechanics of it, its optical performance and the history. 
They will possibly join the LUG and LHSA and expand our circle of friends 
with a common interest and they might even turn out to be damned good 
photographers too. 
 So go out there and introduce the joy of an M to a young person and point 
them to the Leica-shop nearest you and tell them to spend their stock 
dividends or "signing-up" bonuses on something that will give them years of 
pleasure. You are doing yourself a service, expanding the availability of 
buyers and sellers of Leica stuff and you are doing your part to keep the 
Leica-Legend alive! 
 The alternative to this is that all LUGgers chip in and ante up about 
$70,000 each and we buy the company and run it as we would like it to be run. 
You think that Mr. Cohn has problem today, imagine a shareholders meeting 
consisting of 700 LUGgers. All with one vote each trying to decide the future 
of the company and the product line! To quote Brando in Apocalypse Now "The 
Horror, the Horror".
Tom A

Tom Abrahamsson
Vancouver, BC
Canada
www.rapidwinder.com